Workflow creation and editing is an important task to many organizations. Users want to build workflows that get executed using a web application platform. Any graphics software with flow chart shapes can be used to create a workflow diagram. For example, anyone already familiar with flowcharting in Microsoft Visio can design a workflow that represents their business logic. Then, the workflow may be opened in the web application platform using a web application platform tool. One example of a web application platform tool is SharePoint Designer 2010. Using a web application platform tool, the user may then edit parameters to implement the workflow. The workflow built in the graphic diagramming program is not complete enough to run without further modifications made within the web application platform tool.
This process was very code-like and therefore did not provide a close, direct connection between the visualization, i.e., the visual design, and the parameterization. The implementation on the web application platform tool also did not have a lot of features that customers wanted to be able to use. Nevertheless, in creating workflows, the designer always has to use the text base tool feature that allows the designer to go from the graphic diagramming program into the web application platform tool and transition back and forth between the two products. However, while designers had this joint import/export experience, designers were never sure how the final workflow would look. The designer would finish setting the workflow up in the web application platform tool and then publish the workflow onto the server where the workflow could be reviewed.
Thus, the graphic diagramming tool is merely a starting point. The designer had to eventually switch to web application platform tool to implement the code. However, in many cases, the person who is the designer or expert on the workflow process that needs to be automated is not an engineer or expert in declarative editor authoring. Therefore, it is important to enable the process designer to use familiar tools to create a visual workflow in a manner that enables an implementer to easily translate that process design expertise into a functional workflow. Currently, the process of moving a visual workflow from the diagramming program to the web application platform is not a simple task. Moreover, the process may require further modifications because the resulting code provided by the expert in declarative editor authoring does not correlate with workflow envisioned by the process expert.